The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-11-03

est of all industries, assembled here,
not merely for the pleasures or emolu-
ments to be gained by their attend
ance, but I trust imbued with proper
conceptions of the great responsibility
resting upon them, thoroughly alive
to the conditions of the times, and
firmly resolved to work out the proper
and true solution of how to relieve
the depressed condition of agriculture
in our beautiful southland, and when
found, to stand shoulder to shoulder
in one solid phalanx, till the effort is
crowned with victory. AS the first
legislative body ever convened in the
order, you will have a great work to
perform, and the future prosperity Of
this great movement is therefore,
largely in your hands. Your atten-
ton is called to the causes that com-
bined, created the necessity for this
organization. The plan on which
organization has been effected COM
prising the Organic law of the order,
both written and unwritten, and the
objects and conditions it is expected
to achieve, in the event that success
attends the effort. The laws to be
made by this body will be statutory
and will be based upon and explana-
tory of the Organic law; they should
be prompted by the necessities that
gave rise to the existence of the order,
and executed with Esprit of devotion
to the objects we seek to achieve,
bounded only by the limit of posi-
bility.
MI. Garvin, in his history of the
Alliance in Texas, says, that it was
started somewhere between 1870 and
1875, in Lampasas county by a mum
Der of farmers, who associated them
selves together in a defensive league,
to resist the encroachments of land
sharks, who proposed to rob them of
their homes. The history of the move
from it's inception up to 1886, was not
attended with much interest. 1t had
grown by August, 1885, to the num-
Der of about 700 subordinate ALLIANCES,
and had changed it's objects and work
ings, until they resemble very closely
those of the present. From August,
1885, to August 1886, a most prodig-
ious growth was recorded; the increase
was about 1000 sub-Alliances. Among
the reasons for this rapid growth, and
probably n of the most potent, was
the fact that all other occupations we're
either oganized, OF were rapidly organ
izing, and the farming interest was
unable to cope with them, without Or
%ganization, therefore the necessity for
organization for self defense. Again,
the results of combination had redu-
ced the price of all products the farmer
had to sell to such an extent, that in
many cases they would not pay hire
lings wages to the one who produced
them, and were really grown at a loss.
The rule was, that a year spent in the
most vigorous labor and rigid economy,
would with good management yield a
bare subsistence, and in many cases it
yielded less; and would finally result in
a surrender of the farm to the mortga-
gee merchant, and the addition of one
more family to the army of renters.
It seems to be an admitted fact, that
organization was the only hope of the
farmer, and as the Alliance was pre-
sented as strictly a farmers organiza-
ton, its ranks were rapidly filled with
all those who felt disposed to unite
and resist the encroachment of other
organizations, and who realize that it
required organization to meet organ
lied power. Such large numbers join
ing a secret organization in so short a
time, rendered proper instructions as
to the principles and objects of the
order impossible; consequently many
joined who were not as we'll posted as
they should have been, and vast differ
ences were entertained, as to the policy
to be pursued in order to accomplish
with speed and certainty the objects
of the order.
Some contended that the only hope
was in the ballot-box, and that united
political action was the only way for
the Alliance ever to accomplish any
thing; others realizing the danger to
American institutions, by the introduc
ton of a secret political party, con
tended that we must eschew politics
altogether, and that the Alliance was
a social and benevolent. organization,
calculated to make a man a better
farmer and a better neighbor. Others
had different conceptions; some that it
would make all farmers boys orators;